US-Based Buy.com to be Rebranded as ‘Rakuten Shopping’ This Week

Yesterday we mentioned that Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten (JSD: 4755) is opening a Singapore office to enlarge the company’s presence even more in Southeast Asia. But the Japanese company is also busy in the US where its Buy.com store will take on the new URL and name Rakuten.com Shopping starting this Thursday, January 31st.

Rakuten acquired Buy.com back in May 2010, and retained its name while making gradual transitions. The e-tailer’s announcement explains that the “Buy.com brand will continue to offer over 3.2 million products in 15 categories” within the rebranded Rakuten Shopping, which has over 16 million products in 24 categories. The Japanese company plans to offer new features to both merchants and customers this year for a better shopping experience on the site while also expanding its range of products.

OCRegister quoted analysts earlier this month in questioning if this move by Rakuten would prove to be a successful one. They reasoned that the three-letter domain name Buy.com is simply much easier to use and type compared to the rather Japanese name ‘Rakuten’. But Rakuten executives said that this move is needed to establish the Japanese brand globally.

For further details regarding the transition, you can see more details here.